In the last decades, electrophysiological and imaging-based approaches provided significant new insights into the mechanisms of neuronal development. Nevertheless, many important questions remain unanswered. How does the fine control of a motor output develop? How does sensorimotor integration in the early and subsequent phases of brain development shape behavior? How does sensorimotor development evolve in awake and sleeping states? What role do myoclonic twitches play in this process? Answering these questions requires performing high-precision tests in the brain of non-anesthetized animals across sleep and wake during the early stages of their postnatal development. Such tests require head-fixation apparatus suitable for neonatal and juvenile rodents. The Mobile HomeCage combines a stable head-fixation with an air-lifted cage that closely resembles laboratory rodents’ natural habitat – an optimal platform for studying early postnatal brain development. In this webinar, Dr. Cavaccini (Prof. Karayannis’s lab at the Brain Research Institute, University of Zurich) and Dr. Dooley (Prof. Blumberg’s lab at the University of Iowa), share their insights into the development of rodent sensorimotor neuronal circuits during early postnatal life. They elucidate the cortical and subcortical mechanisms involved in the development of sensorimotor circuitry during wakefulness (in a mouse model) and REM sleep (in a rat model). Key Takeaways Dr. Anna Cavaccini: - Anatomical and functional changes occur at the striatal level before and after the onset of different sensory modalities - Locomotor activity changes throughout early development, and it correlates with striatal function - Sensory information coming from whiskers affects locomotion and striatal function before and after the onset of different sensory modalities Dr. James Dooley: - Myoclonic twitches in REM sleep continue to trigger cortical and thalamic activity beyond the early postnatal period - Twitch-related thalamic activity is spatiotemporally refined by the third postnatal week - Motor thalamus activity reflects an internal model of movement produced by twitches and is dependent on the cerebellar output